Sports Takes and Predictions

St. Louis Rams Battle for Playoff Spot Tonight in Seattle

It’s been quite a while since I’ve been able to say that I’ll be watching the Rams play in a game that really matters in the grand scheme of things in the NFL. They last made the playoffs six years ago and posted the worst combined three-year record going into this season. Nobody could have expected them to be playing for an NFC West title on the last Sunday of the season.

The young Rams must be ready to stake their claim to a division title tonight.

I’ve been a Rams fan since I was a little boy. They are the one team that I can say I am a life long fan off. How does a boy growing up in Central New York become a Los Angeles Rams fan? My older brother liked them and so I decided I was going to like them as well. And I’ve supported them in good times and bad.

I loved Eric Dickerson and then Jim Everett. I hated the 49ers…and I still do. I watched them play terrible football in the 90’s while I took them to Super Bowls in Madden on the PlayStation. And I experienced the magical ’99 season when Kurt Warner and Marshall Faulk took them to a real Super Bowl. I’ll always remember that day. I was a ball of excitement and nervousness. And when the Rams won I think I mostly felt disbelief. After those many years of fandom it was wonderful to have the Rams holding up the Lombardi trophy as NFL champions.

But, bringing it back to today, the Rams have far surpassed my expectations for this season. I picked them to be 4-12. My hopes for the year were that the Rams would win a few more games, show some solid improvement on defense and protect Sam Bradford.

I’ve gotten the chance to watch a couple of their complete games. I’ve been very impressed with what Bradford has done with limited weapons and with what Coach Steve Spagnuolo has been able to do with the defense.

Here are the three key things the Rams need to do to win tonight:

Be rock solid on kick and punt coverage. Leon Washington is always a threat for the Seahawks in the return game. He’s returned three kickoffs for touchdowns this season while averaging 25.9 yards per kickoff return and 14.0 on punt returns. The Rams gave up a punt return for a touchdown just last week to Ted Ginn Jr.

Protect Sam Bradford. The Seahawks are tied for 12th in the NFL with 34 sacks and Chris Clemons is also tied for 12th among players with 10.5 sacks. The Rams offensive linemen have to win their battles with the Seattle defensive linemen and linebackers.

Mix up defensive looks and blitzes. Charlie Whitehurst is inexperienced at quarterback. The more looks and blitzes Spags throws at him the more likely he is to make bad decisions that result in turnovers.

So those are the three things I’ll be focusing on tonight. You may have noticed that I did not make a prediction for the game. I won’t make predictions for Rams games – I think it’s bad karma.